Daily news and top headlines for broadband communications engineering and design professionals

America's most popular pro sports league and YouTube announced a partnership Monday between two of the most powerful brands in the marketplace, creating an official NFL channel on the video website. Content posted daily to the portal by the league will include game previews, in-game highlights, post-game recaps and clips featuring news, analysis, fantasy football advice and other original programming from NFL Network and NFL.com.

With up to 3 feet of snow forecast Monday night into Tuesday, Time Warner Cable has geared up for the blizzard of historic proportions. Time Warner Cable has been down this road before in its New York City footprint after 9/11 in 2001 and Super Storm Sandy three years ago, so the nation’s second largest cable operator started mobilizing its techs.

In the wake of closing its acquistion of Iusacell, AT&T announced Monday that it has agreed to acquire Nextel Mexico from NII Holdings for $1.8 billion. The purchase includes wireless properties in Mexico, including spectrum licenses, network assets, retail stores and approximately 3 million subscribers.

Starting next month, Cablevision will be the first cable operator to offer a Wi-Fi based phone service to both subscribers and non-subscribers. The service, which is called “Freewheel,” will provide users with unlimited data, talk and text over Cablevision’s 1.1 million New York metropolitan area Wi-Fi hotspots or anywhere else in the world where Wi-Fi is available.

Charter Communications announced today that Rich DiGeronimo has been promoted to executive vice president, product and strategy where he will continue to report to COO John Bickham. DiGeronimo previously served as senior vice president, product and strategy since 2011.

Satellite TV provider Dish Network made a splash this month when it unveiled an online alternative with fewer channels and a lower price tag than its regular service. Based on a few days of viewing, Sling TV comes across as a good stopgap for those who don't already pay for cable or satellite — but it's not compelling enough for most people to cut the cord.

Verizon provided its software-upgradeable FiOS Quantum Gateway with its first set of new features, the most prominent of which is guest Wi-Fi, which the company gushes is “perfect for gatherings or businesses.” The updates also include parental controls.

Customers of both OpenVault and FourthWall will be able to get an integrated view of the data from both their cable modems and set-top boxes now that OpenVault has licensed the use of STB diagnostics from FourthWall’s MassiveData division.

According to recent research by Parks Associates, 17 percent of the broadband homes across the nation were likely to subscribe to HBO’s standalone, over-the-top service. Out of that group of would be HBO users—the service is supposed to launch sometime this year—91 percent were currently pay-TV subscribers, and roughly one-half would drop their pay-tv service after subscribing to HBO’s new OTT service.

In true San Francisco irony, smartphones were used Thursday to snap pictures of a historic phone that was used to make the first coast-to-coast phone call 100 years ago. On Jan. 25, 1915, to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal and to show that San Francisco had recovered from the 1906 earthquake and fire, American Telephone and Telegraph Co. conducted a call between the city and New York.

By one estimation, Google's ultimate goal is to force down prices in wireline broadband. The Internet search giant has reportedly codenamed the new venture Nova and a number of employees at the company have already tested the service. The service will likely launch this year.

CFO Fran Shammo teased about an over-the-top product that might be introduced in the summer. He said the IoT is now a defined, growing business with specific revenue attached. He also reiterated Verizon’s opposition to Title II reclassification.

In an effort to keep broadband subscribers up to speed on their data-plan usage, GCI has launched its “No Worries” broadband tiers. The No Worries broadband plans give GCI subscribers the ability to manage their monthly Internet bills, which in turn should eliminate surprise overage fees.